What it costs to run East Village Hub

I run East Village Hub in my spare time. It has no ads, no sponsors and no paid listings, and I want to keep it that way. So here's what it actually costs, line by line.

Where the money goes

It costs about £65 a month.

• Hosting, £20. Serves every page, tracker and alert.
• Database, £20. Holds your reports, follows and saved places.
• AI, £20. Answers your questions when you ask Rosie.
• Domain, about £1. eastvillagehub.co.uk, paid up to August 2028.
• Data protection fee, about £4. Paid once a year to the Information Commissioner's Office, because the hub holds your account details.

My own time isn't on the list, and neither are the tools I use to build it. Those are on me.

What stays free

Safety information is free for everyone, always. That means every tracker, Heads up on the homepage, Ask Rosie, the news, What's on and the weekly digest. A free account adds your inbox, push alerts and saved places.

None of that will ever sit behind a payment.

How you can help

Becoming a member is how the hub pays its way. There are three levels:

• Resident, £2 a month or £20 a year: email alerts for the trackers you follow.
• Villager, £5 a month or £50 a year: everything in Resident, a members' note each month on what your money paid for, and your name on the supporter wall.
• Champion, £10 a month or £100 a year: everything in Villager, and a bigger credit on the supporter wall.

Paying yearly gets you two months free. Pay by card or Apple Pay through Stripe, with no account needed first. Your perks go on the account for the email you pay with. You can cancel any time from Settings.

As I write this, on 18 October, one member pays £2 a month towards it. About 20 members on a mix of levels would cover the running costs, or about 37 if everyone chose £2 a month, after card fees. Every one gets the hub closer to paying for itself.

If membership isn't for you, a one-off gift helps too, and sharing the hub with a neighbour helps just as much.

Thank you for reading, and for being part of it.

Photo: Entrance to Victory Park, East Village, Stratford, London by ArtemSmartenko, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0. Cropped.